REPORT OF NATIOliTAL MUSEUM, 1919. 41 



Some of the special work performed by him in connection with 

 the Fish Commission was as follows: 



In 1880 and 1881 he was employed upon the fishery investigations 

 of the Tenth Census, reporting as follows : On the natural history 

 of, and the fisheries for, the commercial lobsters, crabs, shrimps, 

 corals, and sponges; the marine fishing grounds of North America 

 and the ocean temperatures of the Atlantic coast of the United 

 States; amounting in all to 550 quarto pages, with lOG plates. 



In 1891, at the request of the Secretary of State, he assisted Gen. 

 John W. Foster in preparing material for the United States case at 

 the Paris fur-seal tribunal. He had the services of several experts, 

 and was called to report upon the laws of all nations relating to the 

 extra-limital fisheries for whales, hair seals, fishes, precious corals, 

 pearls, trex)ang, etc., and also upon the distribution and habits of 

 these forms. Eeports of progress were made daily to General Foster 

 and the completed rejjort consisted of two large volumes of type- 

 writing, the more essential parts of which were incorporated in the 

 extended brief of the American agent. 



During the entire period of the fur-seal inquiries Mr. Eathbun 

 was in charge of the investigations, except those of the first inter- 

 national commission. The steamer Albatross made yearly trips to 

 Bering Sea with one or more experts, who were charged with the 

 Etudy of the habits of these animals, and with making an annual 

 comparative record of their distribution and numbers by written 

 notes and identical series of photographs. The work was also ex- 

 tended to the Russian islands. 



The most important international commission to the Fur Seal 

 Islands was the one dispatched in 1896. This expedition, with the 

 cooperation of the Secretary of State, was conducted by the Treasury 

 Department. Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Charles S. Hamlin 

 was in immediate charge of the case and Mr. Rathbun was called to 

 be his chief adviser. The latter was asked to become the head of 

 the American commission, but, declining, was requested to nominate 

 its members, which he did. Mr. Rathbun also prepared the instruc- 

 tions for the commission, which entered into every detail and every 

 accusation on the part of Canada. 



In December, 1892, Mr. Rathbun was appointed by President Har- 

 rison, as the American representative on the Joint Commission with 

 Great Britain to study the condition of the fisheries in the boundary 

 waters between the United States and Canada and the seacoast waters 

 adjacent to the two countries, and to report such measures as might 

 be deemed necessary to insure the protection of these fisheries. No 

 similar investigation of such magnitude and importance Avas ever 

 before attempted and four years were required for its accomplish- 



